Creepy conference: Fans of the freaky hold annual event in Alton

Fans of the freaky hold annual event in Alton

Kevin Korinek, For the Telegraph

Published
10:41 pm CDT, Saturday, June 25, 2016

Image
1of/3

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 3

Creepy conference: Fans of the freaky hold annual event in Alton

1 / 3

Back to Gallery

ALTON — On Saturday, American Hauntings held its 20th annual Haunted America Conference at the Atrium Hotel. The two day conference, created by prolific author and paranormal activist Troy Taylor, featured over 20 vendors and speakers in celebration of all things supernatural.

American Hauntings is a tour company that organizes tours of haunted locations in the midwest. People come from all over the country to speak with tour guides, listen to experts lectures on the paranormal, and connect with like-minded people. The conference also featured an art show as well as hand-crafted candles, aura photography, Ouija boards and other artifacts available for purchase. Nearly 300 people signed up to attend.

Manager Lisa Taylor-Horton has been with the company for three years and says she has enjoyed every minute of it.

“Alton is one of the most haunted cities in America,” she said. “You can walk through this town and find something haunted on every block.”

She also practices paranormal investigation and, in her professional opinion, the most haunted place in Alton is the First Unitarian Church on East 3rd Street.

“It scares me,” she laughed. “So many people have had their own experiences there – seeing a person, things moving around on their own – it’s just an overall heavy feeling.”

Creator Troy Taylor is one of the experts, having authored over 100 books on varying subjects. He recounted how he became hooked on ghosts. It wasn’t his own close encounter – it was vinyl.

“As a kid, I was fascinated with ghosts but what really got me started was a record on the back of a cereal box,” he said. That record was the Vanishing Hitchhiker, an urban legend about a hitchhiker who mysteriously disappears. As I got older, I learned that story is in every culture, and then I just kind of kept going. I’ve written about these things all over Illinois and the country and i just love doing it. I get to meet a lot of interesting people.”

For many, the appeal is really a love for the unexplained mysteries of life. Troy acknowledges that several people are drawn to the conference simply to share information.

“People really like the history and the stories. I think the first-hand accounts draw people more than anything,” he said. “Some people have had a first encounter of their own so it’s cool to have these shared experiences with others.”

One of those people is Brooke Kannady, an occult enthusiast who came from St. Louis. This was her fourth time attending the festival.

“I’ve always been interested in this stuff, it’s been a huge fascination and passion,” she said. “If I could leave my professional life and do paranormal stuff for a living, I would.”

But she wouldn’t be a ghost hunter, opting for perhaps an even more out-there profession – cryptozoology, or the study of unknown creatures, such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

She would like to see more cryptozoologists attend the event, but she finds a real solidarity in the conference — where the word “stranger” could take on an added meaning.

“It’s interesting here, you can sit down with a stranger and immediately have a connection and something to talk about,” she said.